Cleft lips and cleft palates are common birth defects and require special attention during the initial six months of a child's life. To be more specific, there are three types of cleft lip, i.e., unilateral incomplete, unilateral complete and bilateral complete. There are also three types of cleft palates, namely the soft palate only, the unilateral complete, and the bilateral complete. However, each of the cleft lip and/or cleft palate malformations involves leakage of air from the mouth through the nose, which causes an infant to be unable to suck, causing regurgitation of fluids through the nose and difficulty in swallowing and breathing.
For a period of about six months until the infant has matured enough for corrective surgery, the infant must be fed. Feeding is not only the most immediate problem encountered in the daily care of an infant with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate, but it is one of the more difficult to solve and the most necessary for the survival of the child.
A U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,663 of Epp discloses a nursing device for infants with a cleft lip or cleft palate. As disclosed, the device comprises a solid duckbill-shaped shield with an incorporated nipple on its underside, together with means for interconnecting the nipple and a baby bottle or breast. The shield acts to seal the cleft palate while keeping the nipple from collapsing into the cleft palate and cleft lip to allow an infant to suck liquids from a bottle or the breast.
A French Patent No. 2,622,102 A1 of Michel Grateau discloses a control device with feedback for artificial feeding systems for force-feeding of infants. The device that is fitted into a nursing bottle allows a caregiver to control the feeding device.
A more recent U.S. Pat. No. 6,033,367 of Goldfield discloses a smart bottle and system for neonatal nursing. The system for diagnosing or monitoring sucking/swallowing/breathing of an impaired neonate includes a processor for receiving a signal from a breath sensor. The system develops an output for intraoral tactical or flow control feedback. In a feeding or monitoring embodiment, the processor applies a signal to control a liquid feeding valve, which supplies nutrients through a feeding nipple. In another embodiment, adapted for manual feeding, the processor displays a waveform indicative of the breath or airflow sensor output, and a manually operated pressure bulb is provided to allow a nurse to apply arrhythmic muscular pressure stimulus via a feeding or surrogate nipple in a manner visually synchronized with the displayed breath activity.
Notwithstanding the above, it is presently believed that there is a need for and a commercial potential for an improved feeding device in accordance with the present invention. There should be a demand for such devices because the devices pump measured amounts of milk in pre-selected periods of time to overcome the difficulties in feeding children with cleft lips and cleft palates. Further, the devices in accordance with the invention include a nipple so that a baby can develop an ability to suck and, at the same time, to exercise and massage the muscles of the face. In some cases, a baby cannot cope with swallowing because of the defect in the palate. However, with the devices in accordance with the present invention, a nurse or mother can pump measured amounts of nutrient so that the child obtains enough nutrients in enough time without adversely affecting their general condition.
The devices in accordance with the present invention are also applicable for pre-natal infants, i.e., those born before 32 weeks. The suction reflex in such infants may not be fully developed, and the child may choke on nutrient from an ordinary bottle. Such choking may lead to infection. Further, the use of the present invention may allow the infant to leave the hospital at an earlier time, since the mother will be able to feed the child at home. Another advantage of the device is that it has a nipple that helps in developing a child's ability to suck.
Further, children with special needs that have a problem with swallowing may also benefit from the use of the devices in accordance with the invention. Still further, the devices avoid a problem associated with spilling relatively large amounts of milk during feeding. Also, such devices can be used to feed fluid foods to elderly people who are having feeding problems.